Year B Blessed Virgin Mary 2018 Magnify

Year B Blessed St. Mary the Virgin Mother Of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Aug 2018 

St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA 

“Magnify” 

 

Luke 1:46-55 

Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever." 

 

Magnify, v. Latin, based on magnus ‘great.’ 

1. make (something) appear larger than it is 

2. archaic extol; glorify. 

 

I was an awkward kid. I was kind, and a boy. And people do not know what to do with large, awkward, kind boys, especially other boys. Glad I am who I am, but at the same time, it was not always that way. 

  

When I felt the call of God on my life, so often, too often, I felt, “Why me?” And maybe I am projecting to much, but I hear some of that in Mary. Not in a belittling or self-deprecating way, but in a sense, that if God can do something in her, as lowly and forgettable as she was then God is glorified. When people are gracious and thankful for anything I do, it is God at work in me. Like St. Francis said, “Soli Deo Gloria.” To God Alone be the Glory. 

 

The God who promises so much to the least of these, who has a preferential inclination for “the bungled and the botched,” is one heck of a God. He who made the Sun and Stars, who sets the planets in their courses, cares enough about us that he not only acknowledges us, but loves us to the point of knowing the numbers of hairs on our heads. Thanks be to God. 

Mary’s song of praise, which takes its most common name from the first word in the Latin, Magnificat, is an ideal Jewish song of praise. It is song of a righteous God. It is a song to the God of the Underdog.  

This God of the Underdog, though, is not the UnderGod. This God is the High God who models what he desires: Justice, Peace, and Grace. 

Mary is our model, like Paul, who said Yes to the Call of God. “When I am weak, he is strong.” Mary is saying much the same thing. 

My soul magnifies the Lord, because as I put my trust in God, and God’s work can be accomplished in this hurting world, then God is made greater, and bigger, and more beautiful to one and all who see little ol’ me, or little ol’ you, and know that this is not under our own power and might. Thanks be to God. 

When we say Yes to God, God is magnified, and one by one this world is made a bit more “on earth as it is in heaven.”